


I’ll Give You My Heart (I Hope It’ll Do)

by mymidsummersunshine



Series: Cat AU [1]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mymidsummersunshine/pseuds/mymidsummersunshine
Summary: It’s finally Christmas time, and Matt wants to get the perfect gift for Anders. It turns out Anders has a similar plan for Matt.
Relationships: Anders Bjork/Matt Grzelcyk
Series: Cat AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737166
Kudos: 18





	I’ll Give You My Heart (I Hope It’ll Do)

**Author's Note:**

> Yes it’s April but it snowed today and time is fake so here’s a Christmas fic lmao
> 
> Special shoutout to the group chat for a lot of the little details that happen in this!
> 
> This takes place in my cat AU, which if you haven’t read any of the drabbles I’ve posted on tumblr basically all you need to know is that Matt and Anders adopt a cat and name him Tiny
> 
> Title taken from Humbug by Owl City!

Matt is woken up on November 1st to the sound of Anders’ alarm. Only, wait, it’s not his usual alarm song. In his tired state, and with only the few seconds he got to hear of it before Anders shuts it off, it takes him a minute to place it.

“Honey?” he says, voice still thick with sleep.

“Yeah?”

“Was that _It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year_?”

“Yep.”

“... Halloween was yesterday.”

“And?”

“Can we at least get through Thanksgiving before you break out the Christmas music?”

“No can do,” Anders smiles. “I’ll take a break for Thanksgiving, but Christmas starts today, baby.” He kisses Matt’s nose, then stands up and starts getting dressed. Matt sighs, then slowly stands up and joins him. He goes through the motions of getting dressed, brushing his teeth, and making his breakfast, but it’s not until he’s sitting at the table that he realizes what Anders is wearing. He almost chokes on his coffee.

“Holy shit, you got out the ugly sweaters, too?” The sweater isn’t ugly per se, but it is extremely tacky, especially for Anders. It has a large face of a cat on the front with the words Meowy Christmas written below it to look like tinsel.

Anders pouts. “It’s not ugly, it’s our son.”

“Our son -” Matt stops when he realizes the cat is almost identical to Tiny. “You had this custom made?”

“Sure did. You have a matching one, for when you’re ready to wear it. It doesn’t have to be today if you want to wait until after Thanksgiving.”

Matt needs more coffee for this. He takes another sip. “How long have you been planning this?”

Anders shrugs. “August, maybe? A while. I had to order them, like, a month in advance because the artist makes them as they’re ordered. They just got here a couple days ago so I’m glad they made it in time.” He stands up to clear his plate and pour the rest of his coffee into a travel mug, then comes back to give Matt a hug from behind.

“If I come home and there’s a tree set up, I’m taking it down myself,” Matt warns half heartedly. 

“No, I’ll wait for the tree. But only because I want a real one, and it wouldn’t last until Christmas Day.” He leans down to kiss Matt’s temple, and Matt turns up to meet him.

“I love you. Have a good day, see you when I get home.”

“I will, I love you, too.” Anders heads down the hall to put his shoes on, then heads out the door. Matt finishes his own breakfast, then sets off to work.

—

He actually gets to leave work at a decent hour, which is good for his tiredness level, but less so for the traffic level. It takes quite a bit longer than he’s used to for him to actually get home. When he pulls into the driveway he can see the lights on in the living room, and the fake candles in almost all of the front windows. Matt sighs. Anders must have gotten a head start on decorating.

He pulls into the garage and heads upstairs, stopping briefly to pet Tiny and set his bag down. When he gets to the living room, sure enough, Anders has pulled out all the boxes of decorations and has started putting them out. The candles in the windows are joined by garlands over the door frames, a wreath on the door between the living room and the kitchen, mistletoe above their bedroom door, some red and green knick knacks on the bookshelf, the stockings above the fireplace, and...

“What the fuck is that?”

Anders looks up from where he’s digging through one of the boxes. He has the Tiny sweater on still, and now a red Santa hat as well.

“Oh, hi, love. You’re home early,” he says.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Anders looks over to where Matt is pointing to the giant inflatable Santa Claus in the corner. It’s so large it barely fits under their ceiling. The top of his hat is folded over ever so slightly. 

“Oh, him? I saw him at Target and thought he looked cool. He didn’t really fit anywhere else.”

Matt finds he can’t really argue with that. But at the same time...

“Where’s the tree going to go, though?”

Anders opens his mouth like he’s about to answer, then he looks around the living room again and closes it. “Guess we’ll have to find a new place for him when we get it,” he says. He opens his arms as an invitation for a hug, which Matt gratefully accepts.

“You really started decorating without me?” he asks.

“Sorry, I couldn’t wait. Do you want to help me with the rest?”

“I mean, what else is there to do? Plus I’m starving, let’s make dinner first.”

“Okay, dinner first, then there’s still two more non-tree ornament boxes to go through, plus the outside lights, but those I’m willing to wait until after Thanksgiving if you want. Tiny thinks he’s been helping but mostly he just likes the boxes, I think. The real help will be nice.”

Matt laughs. “I’m sure he’s been helpful. He’s good at being right in the box you want to put things in.”

“He’s also good at knocking things over. I only put non-breakable stuff out on the shelves, just in case.”

Matt goes into the bedroom to change out of his work clothes, and when he comes back out, Anders laughs at him.

“What?” He looks down to make sure his shirt isn’t on backwards or anything.

Anders points to the mistletoe above the door, and that’s when Matt realizes Tiny is sitting next to him in the doorway. He laughs too, then scoops him up and kisses the top of his head.

”Merry Christmas, buddy,” he says. Tiny is less than thrilled, and squirms until Matt puts him down. Anders walks over to join them.

“I put that up so _I_ could kiss you more,” he complains. “I can’t believe he ruined my plan.”

“You can kiss me, anyway, mistletoe or not.” Anders obliges.

(It’s a good thing Anders only put non-breakable things on the shelves, as they come to find out the next morning. Several of the knick knacks and window candles are on the floor, and the inflatable Santa is in a heap. Matt finds a hole in its foot just about the size of one of Tiny’s claws. Anders takes a picture of it for his Instagram story, captions it “mood,” then admits defeat and promises to not buy any more inflatables.)

—

About halfway through November, Matt is having lunch with their friend Jake. Anders had some errands to run, so he couldn’t come with them, but it also gives Matt the opportunity to ask a third party about something he’s been thinking about for a while.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you something,” he says nervously.

Jake swallows his sip of his soda, then raises his eyebrows. “Sure, what is it?”

Matt fiddles with his straw wrapper. “I want to propose to Anders,” he says, “and I wanted some opinions on how I should do it.”

Jake’s jaw drops. “Oh my god, really?! That’s awesome, man! Did you have any ideas?”

“Yeah, I had a few. He loves Christmas so I wanted to do something with that, and, well, ‘tis the season.”

Jake nods. “Oh yeah, that makes sense. Hey, you should do it in front of the big tree downtown. It doesn’t get any more cheesy Christmas movie than that.”

“Yeah...” Matt trails off. “I don’t know, I was thinking something a little more... private.”

“Okay, okay, I can work with that.” He thinks about it for a minute. “What are your Christmas Eve plans?”

“We’re going to my cousin’s house for dinner.”

“Could you do it then? Or were you thinking just the two of you?”

“Just the two of us, I think. Three of us including Tiny.”

The waiter comes with their meals, and they both thank them. Jake steals one of Matt’s fries.

“Wait, I think I’ve got it,” Matt says, snapping his fingers. “I’ll put it in his stocking so when he wakes up Christmas morning, it’s there for him.”

Jake chokes on the fry. When he’s finished coughing, and Matt triple checks to make sure he’s okay, he agrees with words.

“No, no, I love that, that’s adorable,” he says. “You’d just have to make sure you wake up before him to put it there.”

“True. I’ll set an alarm.”

“Have you gotten the ring yet?”

Matt shakes his head. “Not yet. Will you come with me to pick it out?”

“Yeah, of course! You free next weekend?”

—

The next weekend, as planned, Matt and Jake head out to go ring shopping.

“Oh, are you going out?” Anders asks from the couch. He has one of Tiny’s fishing pole toys, trying to get him to play with it. Matt stops in the door.

“Yeah, I just need to grab a few things. Why, do you need anything?”

“Can you get me some Swedish fish? I’ve been craving some.”

“Sure.”

“Thank you. Have fun!”

Matt sighs with relief once he gets to his car. He’d half been expecting Anders to want to come with him. He texts Jake to let him know he’s on the way to pick him up, then sets off.

He manages to find a parking spot right in front of the place, which Jake insists is good luck. There’s no one else in the shop when they go in.

“Hi, how can I help you?” the clerk asks. Jake looks at Matt, smiling.

“I’m proposing to my boyfriend,” he says. “I need a ring.”

“Oh, congratulations! We’ve got our wedding selection right over here.” They leads them to a display in the corner. There’s gold rings, silver rings, multi colored rings, plain rings, extravagant rings, every kind of ring Matt can imagine and then some. It’s a little overwhelming. The clerk seems to sense that, so they ask, “let’s start with the simple question. Would he like gold or silver? Or another color?”

Matt contemplates. “Gold, I think. He has a gold chain that he wears.”

“Alright, how about design? Something simple, or more detailed?”

“Hmm. I feel like he would want simple, but not, like, plain. But not something big and flashy, either.”

“What about this one?” Matt looks at the one Jake is pointing to. It’s a simple band with a slight ridge along the edges.

“That might be a little too plain,” he says. He goes back to looking at the display when one catches his eye. It’s just a band, it doesn’t have any jewels on it, but it’s got a sort of geometric parallelogram pattern indented into it. It’s unique enough to truly be Anders’, it can’t be confused for anyone else’s if you put them side by side, but it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, either. It’s perfect.

“Jake, I think I’ve found it.” He calls him over and points it out. Jake smiles back at him.

“Oh, man, he’s gonna love that.”

“So this is the one, then?” the clerk confirms.

Matt nods. “That’s the one.”

“Excellent! We’ll just need to get it sized, do you happen to know his ring size?”

“I don’t, but I have this.” Matt takes the box out of his bag. “It’s his class ring from college, he wears it sometimes so I know it fits. On his right hand, though, I don’t know if that makes a difference.”

“It shouldn’t be too big of a difference,” the clerk says as they take the box. “This shouldn’t take too long, I can probably have it done within half an hour. Would you like to stick around, or come back?”

Matt, remembering he has to come home with Swedish fish for Anders, looks at Jake. “I have a couple errands I have to run,” he says. “Is it alright if I come back to pick it up?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll wait here,” Jake volunteers. “I’ll keep an eye on it for ya.”

Matt decides not to say that he doesn’t really trust Jake with that much responsibility, instead just promising to be right back. One bag of Swedish fish, a box of Christmas cards, and some cans of food for Tiny later, he’s back at the shop.

“Perfect timing, I’m just finishing up now.” They finish inspecting it, then put it in a box and hand it to Matt with the class ring. They ring him up at the register, then he’s off on his way home.

“How does it feel?” Jake asks.

Matt can’t stop smiling. “Amazing. I can’t wait to give it to him.”

He drops Jake off, then heads home. He puts both rings in his pockets so Anders doesn't see them.

“I’m home,” he calls as he shuts the front door. Anders pokes his head out from the kitchen door.

“Hi, I was just making some lunch, do you want any?”

“Yeah, thanks. I got you your Swedish fish,” he adds, holding up the bag. Anders’ face lights up.

“You’re the best, did you know that?”

“No, that’s still you.”

Matt drops the cat food off on the counter, then goes into the bedroom. He puts the cards on the desk and the class ring back on Anders’ dresser, then looks around the room as he realizes he doesn’t know where to hide the engagement ring. There’s not a whole lot of places he’s sure he wouldn’t look in the next month. He ultimately decides to put it in the back corner of his sock drawer, covering it up with an old pair of socks to conceal it better. Once it’s hidden he heads back out to the kitchen for lunch.

—

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Matt wakes up to the sun shining through the window. The room is much brighter than usual, and Anders isn’t next to him, so he figures it’s probably a little later in the morning. But when he looks out the window, he smiles as he realizes what the brightness had come from. 

He stands up, stretches, and heads into the living room, where Anders is sitting on the couch watching TV. He looks up and smiles when he sees Matt.

“Morning, love,” he says. “It snowed!”

“I saw,” Matt says. “I was hoping to put the outside lights up today, but maybe that can wait.”

“It’s not snowing anymore, I think we still can. I was thinking we could get the tree today, if the roads aren’t too bad.”

“Oh, good idea.” Matt heads into the kitchen to grab himself a coffee and a bowl of cereal, then joins Anders on the couch. “We can definitely do that.”

They finish up breakfast quickly, then get dressed and head out to get the tree. Matt grabs a tape measure to make sure it fits under their ceiling (“that was one time!” Anders protests), and then they’re off. As they drive to the place, Matt notices the skating rink set up.

“Hey, we should go skating,” he suggests.

Anders laughs. “Yeah, that sounds fun! Maybe not today, though, since we’ll have the tree.”

“Oh. True.”

It’s just a few more miles until they get there. It’s still pretty early in the season, so the selection hasn’t been too picked over yet. They make their way down all the rows, occasionally standing one up to look at it better.

“How about this one?” Anders says as he holds up another one. It’s decent sized, slightly taller than Anders himself, and pretty full. There’s one little bare patch in the back that Matt figures they can just put against the wall. He doesn’t even bother with the tape measure before nodding.

“I think it’s perfect,” he agrees. “Let’s go find someone and pay.”

They get the tree tied to the car with minimal difficulty, then drive home. It takes a little more effort to get it up the stairs, but they manage, and they only lose a few pine needles in the process. Tiny observes very curiously as Anders holds the tree up and Matt digs out the stand and sets it up. They get it in the stand, adjusting it a few times to get it straight, then stand back and admire their work.

“We did a good job with this one,” Anders says. “It’s the perfect size.”

“It really is,” Matt agrees. “But you know what would make it more perfect?”

“What?”

“Lights and ornaments.”

“Well, let’s get on it, then.”

Anders sets up the speakers to play Christmas music while Matt gets out the boxes with the ornaments. They put the lights on first, Anders had found some pretty twinkly ones to add in addition to the standard ones, then they get to work on the ornaments. But they quickly find out they don’t have all that many that they’re not afraid of Tiny breaking after the inflatable Santa incident, so it still looks pretty sparse by the end.

“I’ll get some more at Target or something this week,” Anders says. “In the meantime, do you want to do the honors?” He holds out the star for the top.

Matt takes it. “Let’s do it together,” he suggests. Anders smiles.

“Alright, together.” 

He grabs Matt’s hand, and they both reach up to put it on the tree. Matt has to stand on his toes to reach, but if Anders notices, he doesn’t say anything. He does have to adjust it slightly to get it straight, but in the end it sits on top perfectly.

“And there we have it,” he says, pulling Matt in for a hug with one arm. “Christmas is here.”

“Christmas has been here for you,” Matt points out.

“Well, now it’s really here. The brief pause for Thanksgiving is over. Anyway, I’m thinking of making some hot chocolate, do you want any?”

“Please.”

—

December is a whirlwind, it always is. Shopping, dinner with family, mailing Anders’ family’s presents back to Wisconsin, ice skating, Christmas movies, and all of their other holiday traditions. Christmas Eve sneaks up on Matt faster than he’s expecting. They go to his cousin’s house for dinner, another tradition, catching up with relatives and enjoying the time spent together with some nice snacks and wine. Well, Anders drinks the wine. Matt is the designated driver and has a soda instead.

It’s late when they do finally get home. Anders feeds Tiny while Matt goes to change before coming back into the living room. He sits down on the couch, and Anders wastes no time sitting down next to him and snuggling into his side.

“Should we leave out some milk and cookies for Santa?” he asks.

“Probably not, Tiny would definitely get into them. I don’t want him to get sick, that would make a very bad Christmas.”

“He wouldn’t if I eat them first.”

“You’d eat Santa’s cookies?” Matt fakes offense. “You’re definitely getting coal in your stocking.” 

“Oh, did I forget to mention? I’m actually Santa himself,” Anders smirks. “They’re my cookies.”

“No, that can’t be right. You’re much better looking than Santa Claus.”

“That was supposed to be the part where you sing _Santa Baby_.”

Matt laughs. “Not gonna happen.”

“Damn. Worth a shot.”

They stay like that for a few more minutes, just enjoying the silence and the holiday magic in the air. The lights on the tree are twinkling, the warmth from the fireplace and each other’s body heat warms their souls. Matt yawns and Anders hugs him tighter.

“Do you want to go to bed?” he asks.

“I probably should. You coming?”

“Not yet, I actually have a couple last minute presents I have to wrap. And you’re not allowed to peek.”

“I won’t, don’t worry.” Matt stands up, already missing the warm feeling which is immediately replaced by nerves about his plan for tomorrow, and heads into the bedroom. He brushes his teeth and climbs into bed. He plays a game on his phone for a while, then sets it down on his bedside table and falls asleep. He’s briefly woken up by Anders when he comes back into the room, but Anders just hushes him, and he’s back asleep within minutes.

—

The next morning, he’s woken up by his alarm, and he makes sure to quickly shut it off before it wakes up Anders. Luckily Anders is a heavy sleeper, and doesn’t seem to notice it. He manages to get out of bed and grab the ring out of his drawer without waking him up.

When he goes into the living room, he can’t help but smile. Anders had left the tree lights on overnight, which will probably raise their electric bill, but the magic of the moment makes it worth it. The sun is just coming up, throwing a natural warm glow into the room. Most of the presents from under the tree are gone, having been given to Matt’s family yesterday or mailed out to Anders’, but the ones they have for each other (and Tiny’s new toy Anders had insisted on wrapping even though Tiny definitely doesn’t understand the concept of Christmas) are still there. Matt’s stocking is filled, Anders must have done that after he went to bed. He slips the box into Anders’ before heading into the kitchen to grab the candy to put on top of it.

Tiny meows at him when he passes his food bowl, and Matt laughs softly. “In a minute, buddy, okay? I have to fill Anders’ stocking before he wakes up, and then you can have breakfast.” The stocking is filled within minutes, but it’s an eternity to the poor kitty, who meows even louder. He finally calms down when Matt puts the food in the bowl before grabbing his own coffee and sitting down on the couch. He turns on the TV and finds a random Christmas movie to play in the background, content to enjoy the quiet before Anders wakes up. Tiny finishes his breakfast and joins him. Matt scratches his head, and then under his chin, when he feels something on his collar.

“Whatcha got there?” he asks. He spins the collar around to look, and his eyes widen with shock.

Right at the front of his collar, tied next to the piece with Tiny’s name engraved with red and green string, is a silver engagement ring. It’s a narrow band, with indentations hammered into it, very similar to the gold one Matt had picked out for Anders. He wants to laugh, to cry, to wake Anders up, to do anything really, but he’s feeling so many emotions that he can’t do anything at all. Just as he finally gets the sense to untie the ring so Tiny doesn’t accidentally swallow it, he hears the bedroom door open. He looks up to find Anders smiling nervously at him.

“Merry Christmas, love,” he says. “I see you’ve found your present, do you like it?”

Matt can only nod as he feels the tears start to well up.

“Can I put it on for you?”

Matt nods again. Anders finishes untying the ring for him, then gets down on one knee and holds it out to him.

“Honey, I already said yes,” Matt manages to laugh through the tears.

“I know, I still want to do the one knee thing, though. I had a speech prepared, but it, uh, required you not having already said yes, I’ll save that and reword it for the wedding. I guess I’ll just say, I love you, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” He puts the ring on Matt’s finger. It’s a perfect fit. Matt helps him up, then pulls him in for a long kiss.

When they do break apart, Matt laughs again. “What’s so funny?” Anders asks, pressing their foreheads together.

“I think you should open your stocking now,” Matt says in place of an answer. Anders pouts, but goes to grab both stockings. Matt holds off on opening anything in his, choosing to instead watch Anders. He thanks him for all the candy, including a big bag of Swedish fish, and then he gets to the bottom. His eyes widen before he even pulls his hand out.

“Matt, is this what I think it is?” he asks. Matt doesn’t answer, just smiles back at him. He watches as Anders pulls the box out, opens it, stares at it for a while, then looks back at Matt.

“For real? You want to marry me too?”

“Of course I do. I said yes to you, didn’t I?”

“Right. But you... you were going to propose to me? Today?”

“I was. I still can, if you want.”

“Skip it, just put the damn ring on my finger.”

Matt smiles and shakes his head as he crosses the room and does exactly that. He holds his own hand out next to Anders’. Despite the different metals and slightly different patterns, the rings look like they came from a matched set, even though they didn’t even plan it.

“How long have you had yours?” Matt asks. 

“November,” Anders answers. “That day you and Jake went out to lunch, I told him to keep you distracted while Charlie and I went shopping for it.”

“No way.”

“What?”

“It’s just - that’s when I told Jake I wanted to propose to you, was at that lunch. We got your ring the next weekend.”

Anders laughs. “Man, that’s a sign, if I’ve ever seen one. I think we really are meant for each other.”

“I’d hope so, we’re gonna get married.” Matt leans in for another kiss. This is definitely the best Christmas present he’s ever gotten.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr @mymidsummersunshine!


End file.
